Kerala eye semifinals spot against Vidarbha

Surat, Dec 6 (PTI) First-time entrants Kerala will look
to seal a historic semifinal spot when they take on Vidarbha
in the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament at
the Lalabhai Contractor Stadium here tomorrow.

It took them over 40 years to book their first-ever
knockout berth after producing a spirited performance against
Saurashtra and Haryana in their last two games in the group
stage.

It was Sanju Samson's blistering 180-ball 175-run innings
and some spectacular bowling by Jalaj S Saxena and S Joseph,
which helped them outclass Saurashtra.

In the final match, Kerala notched up an innings and
eight run win over Haryana, riding on allrounder Jalaj's four
wickets and 91-run knock.

With 38 wickets in six matches and 482 runs in 11
innings, Jalaj has emerged as the most effective player for
Kerala and skipper Sachin Baby would expect another good
performance from the offspinning allrounder.

Vidarbha, on the other hand, have made the knockouts
thrice, including two successive quarter-final appearances in
2014-15 and 2015-16.

However, the only time they reached the semifinals was in
2011-12 and Faiz Fazal's men will look to put the best foot
forward against Kerala to enter the last-four once again.

Vidarbha have relied on their batting might to bury their
opponents. They have racked up 400-plus runs five times
this season, riding on the performances of their top-order
batsmen -- Fazal, Sanjay Ramaswamy, Ganesh Satish and Wasim
Jaffer.

In bowling, the return of leg-spinner Karn Sharma will
provide a boost to Vidarbha's spin department, which has been
served by the trioka of Akshay Wakhare (27 wickets), Aditya
Sarwate (18) and Akshay Karnewar (16).

Kerala too have depended on their spinners with two new
left-arm tweakers KC Akshay (13 wickets in 2 matches) and
Sijomon Joseph (19 in four matches) making a big impact.